PERFORM

During this phase, I had to start on the research and website building. I will also have to gather the
logistics and ingredients required for the videos.

During the initial stages of my research, I had difficulty looking for articles and videos that were of
relevance to my searches as I wanted to look for more information on the reasons why there are
different types of kimchi in Korea. However, the results that came out were lacking in detail or gave
only vague explanations. I also realised that it might be because of my search term being too long or
too specific. So, I decided to shorten my search term. This worked but only to a small extent, so I
knew I had to try some other ways. I remembered that there were certain search tips I could use to
make Google include in the search result. So, I went to research on the search tips that I can use.
Examples are using quotation marks when searching for something specific (i.e. if I want the search
result to include kimchi and Seoul, I would type “Seoul” and “Kimchi” in the search engine) and using
a hyphen to exclude words (i.e. if I do not want a recipe that contains garlic, I would type ‘recipe of
army stew -garlic’ into the search engine). After applying the search tips into my research process, it
made a huge difference as I was able to gather articles and videos that I did not see before using the
search tips. The tips I learn allowed me to increase the efficiency of my searches, reducing the time I
need to research.

During the website building, I did not know how to start building a website, I only knew that I
wanted to use Google Sites as the platform. So, I started by searching about what makes a website
appealing and thus makes viewers stay. I found out that there are mainly 8 points, which are colour,
images, textual content, navigation, alignment, continuity, white space and usability. As an internet
user, I do not realise that there are so many elements to keep in mind while making a website and
often take websites that are visually appealing for granted. I did not think that it was difficult to
make an easy website and I always thought that those websites that are not interesting enough
were a result of a lack of effort. But after researching, I realise that that is not the case. I struggled a
lot when I was building the website as I was constantly checking whether my website managed to
meet the criteria of being an interesting website. After understanding the different factors that
makes a website interesting, my view of website building changed a lot. For me, I was using Google
Sites, so it was a platform for beginners as it was essentially just a ‘blank page’ and I would just type
information into text boxes and insert some photos. So, I was basically ‘guided’ along the whole
creation process. This is of total opposite from actual business websites as those were literally
created from scratch. Thus, I really changed my perspective on website creation from the planning
to the eventual launch of the website, the whole process is not as easy as I thought.

During the preparation for the cooking, I had a lot of trouble looking for the ingredients required. For
example, gochujang (Korean chili paste) that was required for the making of Army Stew, was hard to
locate in Singapore because it is not a local product and there were limited imports into Singapore.
This was made worse when I attempted the cooking during the Circuit Breaker period which made it
harder to purchase gochujang as physical stores were closed. This made my chances of finding it
even slimmer. So, I had to turn to eCommerce platforms. It was a hassle as I had to wait and pay for
the delivery of the product which caused delays in my schedule.

During the video editing, I faced some trouble as I did not know of any good video editing software
that was free to use. I also did not know of how to edit videos, but the video editing software I used
was quite user-friendly and I managed to get a hang of it quickly. But in order to help me learn it
faster, I watched the tutorial that was recommended by the developers of the software and that
really helped me understand the software a lot more. Through this process, I found it extremely
tedious to edit and film my own videos. As a frequent user of YouTube, I do watch channels that do
daily uploads. This whole process of editing my own video made me respect those youtubers a lot
and it really made me view the video editing job differently.

During this phase, the cooking and filming of the dishes went well. I was able to capture each step of
the recipe relatively well with the help of my sister. The dishes came out well and according to my
friends who had tried the authentic version of the food, the dishes were quite close to the authentic
versions. The only major obstacle I faced during this whole phase was that I felt that I do not have
enough time on hand as other subjects were taking up a lot of time with projects and assignments
that were all due around the same period. Thus, I need to learn how to better balance between GL
and other subjects. This experience helped me develop resilience as I told myself to not give up and
to push on during this stressful period and I adapted to the problem and managed to solve it by
doing pushing back certain deadlines and doing more work the following weeks.